The Stone Age for Kids

Resources for learning about the Stone Age for kids. Fun facts, videos to watch, books to read, role play toys and lots more.

As I write this my 5 year old son is fascinated by the Stone Age and the Last Ice Age.

I've put together a selection of the top Stone Age facts that have fascinated him like super-sized Stone Age animals. And lots of resources that we have enjoyed learning from.

You'll find funny videos about the Stone Age, Stone Age themed activities, Stone age role-play toys and books and DVDs to learn even more from.

This page should be useful if you are homeschooling, teaching young kids about the Stone Age, or following up your child's interest in cavemen and prehistoric life.

Stone Age Kids

My Boys Dress Up at the Salisbury Mus...

What was the Stone Age?

The Stone Age was the period of time when people made and used stone tools and before they began working with metal. The Stone Age is part of prehistory because it is before we have any written records.

The Stone Age period includes our early ancestors through to modern Homo Sapiens (our species.) During this time the Neaderthal people also lived.

People ate nuts and berries and hunted animals for meat and skins. They lived in caves or shelters made from animal bones and skins.

We were lucky enough to find a Stone Age exhibition at a local museum. It's worth looking to see if any museums local to you cover the Stone Age. The boys loved all the hands on exhibits and information about the Stone Age. And dressing up as a stone age boy and hyena too!

Horrible Histories Stone Age Song

When Was the Stone Age?

The Stone Age refers to a long period of time from around 2.5 million years ago until around 5000 years ago. There isn't an exact date range.

The Stone Age refers to a long period of time which gets divided up into:

Paleolithic

Mesolithic

Neolithic

Play the video for a funny overview of the Stone Age in song.

Fun Stone Age Facts for Kids

Despite what many toy manufacturers seem to think, there were no dinosaurs in the Stone Age. Dinosaurs died out around 65 million years ago.

Nearly all of human history was in the Stone Age. A couple of million years of it. Only in the last 5000 years have we progressed beyond Stone Age technology.

Mammoths and Saber-toothed Cats did live at the same time as Stone Age people. And Cave Bears.

We often talk about The Ice Age meaning the last ice age which took place towards the end of the Stone Age.

The people of North Sentinel Island in Asia are isolated and still live a Stone Age lifestyle today.

Lots of animals were much bigger than their modern counterparts: Mammoths (that's how they got their name!), Saber-toothed Cats and Cave Bears were all really big.

At the beginning of the Stone Age people didn't know how to make fire but made use of naturally occurring fires after lightning strikes.

It wasn't just adults who created cave art, children made cave paintings too.

Fun Stone Age Videos for Kids

These videos made my son laugh out loud. Very funny and packed with facts too.

A Day in the Life Of A 10-Year-Old in Ancient Britain

Horrible Histories Stone Age Report

These short videos are a fun way for kids to learn a bit about stone age facts. They use humor that will appeal to small kids (verified :-)

Through the Horrible Histories clip we discovered the wonderful Horrible Histories series from the BBC.

In the UK you can buy a Horrible Histories DVD set which covers the Stone Age and the rest of history too. You can get Horrible Histories in the US, but you'll need to be able to play non-US DVDs.

Horrible Histories Savage Stone Age DVD

Stone Age Cave Painting

Cave Art

Cave painting is one of the things we most associate with Stone Age. The cave paintings at Lascaux in France were discovered by four schoolboys in 1940. A reproduction of the caves has been created next door so you can visit, but the original paintings are protected from further deterioration.

Cave paintings show that Stone Age people had culture. Cave paintings have been found around the world.

We watched this video of the recreated cave paintings at Lascaux and then my son created his own artwork in the same styles. Pastels work really well for this.

We were very interested to find that archaeologists think that children made cave paintings as well as adults.

Mammoth Cave Painting

By a Modern Child, Age 5

Stone Age Animals

Stone Age Animals

Stone Age creatures included huge animals Woolly Mammoths, Saber-toothed cats including Smilodon, lions, mega bears (cave bears) and hyenas. These animals had been around since before the stone age and lived alongside stone age people when they came along.

There were also lots of smaller animals including smaller mammals, birds and a variety of reptiles and insects. Lots of sea-creatures too.

But it's the big land mammals that are most associated with the stone age.

My son loved this video which shows dead Mammoth being fought over by a stone age lion, wolves and a cave bear!

Prehistoric Mega Animals

Plush Stone Age Animals

We came home from our museum visit with some cute mini-versions of Stone Age animals. My older son is a fan of carnivores, whatever the era, and chose a Smilodon, a kind of saber-toothed cat.

My younger son is interested in mammoths (we're reading the Littlenose books) and choose a very cute mammoth which he has called two-eyes (you'll have to read about Littlenose to find out why.)

Plush Smilodon and Woolly Mammoth

Stone Age Playmobil

It was the arrival of the new Playmobil that renewed my son's interest in the Stone Age. They've got a brilliant new range of Playmobil that features cave people and stone age animals including Mammoths and Saber-tooth cats. We've got the sabre-tooth cat set is it has been played with continually since it arrived. The cats are very cool - the saber-teeth look suitably scary and you can put bones in their mouths.

Savage Stone Age

Stone Age Storybooks

We are loving John Grant's Stone Age series of books featuring Littlenose the Neanderthal who lives in the stone age.

These are fictional books which each include several short stories about Littlenose. They are packed with information about the Stone Age era (though liberties are definitely taken for the sake of a good story!)

The Littlenose books are perfect chapter books for kids to read themselves or for parents to read to younger children. I'm reading them to my 5 and nearly 4 year old and they love them.

Stone Age Sam GameFun point and click adventure game set in the Stone Age.

Further Information on The Stone Age

The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used in the manufacture of implements with a sharp edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 2.5 million years, and ended between 4500 BC t...